Rather than head up the Atiwhakatu Valley I've decided to follow Pinnacle Ridge, for which I have a bit of a soft spot.
What: Day trip
Where: Baldy (Holdsworth area)
When: 11 July 2020
Who: Solo
Map
At 7.25am it's a moderate frost and clear sky as I leave a full Holdsworth carpark and head into the still dim bush.
I follow the trail up the true left for about 20 minutes where a bit of a slip gives a view across the Atiwhakatu stream to frosty flats. The sun is just starting to toast the hill tops but of more immediate interest is the stunning amount of snow just visible on the flanks of Mount Holdsworth - extending some way below the bushline. This is the first indication that the tops may be a bit more of a proposition than I was expecting.
A good trail takes me up towards Pinnacle (877m) - last time up was on a trapping trip and I note the tape marking the turn off to one of the monitoring lines we checked.
About an hour 20 from the car I pop out into the clearing at the top of Pinnacle and am a bit surprised to see the bronze clumps of dracophyllum sticking through a good wee dump of snow. My intended high point for the day is about 600m higher than this and there's some suspicious looking cloud lurking around the range. I start resigning myself to probably not getting there - still no harm in popping up for a look.
I've only come this way once before in the opposite direction at the end of a long day. This time I enjoy the bush and the well trod track that drops to a saddle then climbs gently to pt 862. I ignore the continuation towards pt 800 and follow the markers left and down into the next saddle before climbing to pt 846 - about half an hour from Pinnacle.
The home made sign is a bit more faded than I remember but still in good nick. Left, the track runs down to the river just up from Donnelly Flats, I head right for the saddle below Baldy.
About 5 minutes from the junction there's a wee clearing giving a view up to the Holdsworth/Jumbo ridge. It's hard to tell in the snow but I think I can spot Jumbo Hut.
Another 10 minutes and there's a pair of tidy signs pointing to a spur route to Atiwhakatu Hut and giving distances along the ridge. I love the care that has been put into these.
From here the track undulates along through quite varied bush. There's a few spots where the ridge broadens and you can drift off the trail amidst the fern, but it's generally pretty clear. Once, a ginger shape catches my eye as a deer trots away ahead. Another clearing gives a glimpse up to increasingly threatening looking clag on the ridge beyond Baldy.
It takes an hour 20 from Pinnacle to the DOC track and two minutes further to the sign for the Baldy track. At just after 10am it's about 2 hr 40 from the car so I'm not sure if it is faster than the valley route or not - but I sure do prefer this way.
It's a good old haul out of the saddle so I take it easy. A deer barks just off the spur at one point but doesn't react to my response. It takes a bit over an hour up to the bushline with the last 25 minutes in increasingly deep snow. There's a set of footprints leading up and back but they don't look like they're from this morning.
Peering up through the last of the beech trees it feels like preparing to crawl out of a snow cave into a beautiful blue day.
However, within a few meters the wind starts to make itself felt and the circling ridges look daunting as the clag comes and goes. I hunker behind a boulder to get some more suitable gear on and follow the foot prints higher. Although I'm already pretty sure I know what the answer will be, I figure I'll at least get to the top of Baldy before making a decision.
I take my time pottering up the ridge, the snow is knee deep (occasionally more) and the wind does it's best to knock me over. Despite the clag ahead it's sunny here with clear views out to the Wairarapa.
The footprints turn back before the top of Baldy so I pick my own way on to the rounded top. What with the stops and floundering about it's taken an hour from the bushline.
The ridge up to South King looks steep and intimidating as it disappears into cloud - to the left the Broken Axe pinnacles fade in and out of view. Although on one hand the forecast for today is good, and I know the terrain is not as bad as it looks - on the other; the northwester is clearly smashing into the range, it and the clag don't look like they'll be lifting anytime soon and the snow ain't going to get any easier with another 100m+ of altitude.
The rounded top offers little shelter so I sit behind a ripple in the snow with my back to the wind. I briefly flirt with dropping down a promising but steep spur to the Atiwhakatu Stream headwaters but decide against it in favour of turning exiting in daylight. A quick text home and a bite to eat and I start making my way down.
Rounding a knob I'm a bit surprised to bump into a couple of chaps. They're heading up with the aim of popping along to Mid King then dropping to South Mitre Stream via Mid King Biv. They have an ice axe and snow googles so are a bit better equipped than me. They also seem to be having second thoughts given the strength in the wind. I leave them to it and battle the wind down to the bushline again.
Additional footprints show that somewhere between the chaps coming up and me coming down, a couple of other someones have popped up and back. It's amazing how much the track surface has been churned up into the snow by the various boots.
Additional footprints show that somewhere between the chaps coming up and me coming down, a couple of other someones have popped up and back. It's amazing how much the track surface has been churned up into the snow by the various boots.
I don't catch up with them on the way down and suspect they headed towards Mitre flats from the saddle. A bite in the Saddle about 1.30 then I head right to drop to the Atiwhakatu Stream.
It's about 10 minutes down to the swingbridge over a good sized stream a further 10 to the track up to Jumbo and 35 minutes from there to Atiwhakatu Hut. An hour all up from the Saddle. The sun is in the valley and it's a pleasantly easy wander.
A women and possibly son are chilling on the deck so it's a good excuse to take the weight off weary legs and chat about how the hut has changed to the mansion we see today. She trumps me by remembering an old NZFS hut at the site. They sound like locals and she has done a few trips into the interior - she mentions a helicopter trip to Tarn Ridge Hut and laughs when I ask if she hunts (no, it was a treat). As always, quite a lot of people come and go while I rest for quarter of an hour or so.
The track from here is a highway - a bit of slippage means there are a few rougher sections but I think at least one of the sidles around a slip has been taken out since I last came through.
As always, I potter along ticking off the milestones: 35 minutes to the East Holdsworth Track (good fun steep descent all the way from the tops just shy of Mt Holdsworth), 6 more minutes to Mountain House turn off (to Powell Hut and access over to Totara Flats and further South), 37 minutes after that to the carpark via families camped at Donnelly Flats.
Postscript
At 4pm it's taken about 8hr 30 for the loop. Although there was no new territory it was a nice wee day trip. Pinnacle Ridge is as civilised 'off track' as you will ever find. It's really pretty and without the crowds you get in the valley. It took about 2:40 to the Saddle from the carpark via Pinnacle Ridge and 2.18m from the Saddle to the carpark via the valley at the end of the day (taking out the stop at Atiwhakatu). So it's quicker by the valley - but there's that spur off the ridge to the hut that I haven't got around to yet.
Baldy was completely different covered in snow and windy (as opposed to the more usual clagged-in and windy). I haven't done a lot of snow trips in the Tararua Ranges so was a bit risk averse about heading up but it was the right call. The wind would likely have made the snow on the Broken Axe Pinnacles icy and without the right gear, too much risk of a fall. Not to mention how miserable it would have been bashing down through precipitous, snowy leatherwood.
I bumped into someone a few days later that had tried to get up to Powell and pulled the plug because the wooden steps at the bushline were just about impassable with ice and the wind was something fierce above the bushline. They also discouraged a family in trainers from attempting to get to the hut.
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